December 1, 2007
Saturday

Alert readers (that would be all of you, right?) will notice that there has been a change of logo beside the date. Today is the first of December, so it’s Goodbye NaBloPoMo and Hello Holidailies.

Holidailies began in 2000 when Jette, an Austin blogger, decided to write a post every day as a gift to her readers. I wasn’t one of Jette’s readers, but I did read someone who read Jette, and that’s how I heard about it. I don’t know when this became a group project, with a list of participants. In 2003 the official portal was created, but I missed the cutoff date for signing up. I finally became an official participant in 2004, so this, the eighth annual Holidailies, is my fourth.

Jette suggested that the first Holidailies post be an introduction. I looked back at my history with Holidailies and noticed that in 2004 I was coming off something of a slump year in my writing. I took Holidailies as an opportunity to start again. When I look at the work I did that December, I am tempted to say that Holidailies saved my journal. That collection is called The Soul Ajar, still online in the style of posting I used then. (The link takes you to the table of contents, and you can follow through December from the first piece.)

In 2005 I called my Holidailies posts Enormous Moments. I was wobbling again in my commitment to this public writing, and once again Holidailies became the spark that got me going again. You can see that material at The Silken Tent 1999-2005. The first one is called “Elsewhere.” You can follow the sequence from there by using the “Next entries” links at the end of each essay.

Last year, the beginning of my annus mirabilis, is part of Markings. After almost nine years online, I think I’ve found my voice. When I reread my work for Holidailies 2006 (which begins with “There Was a Child Went Forth”), I hear the voice that I am using now. I see the sensibilities and the point of view in place now. I see my writing self (at least my nonfiction writing self) as I wish her to be.

Readers coming to my site for the first time through the Holidailies portal, or coming back after a year because they read me only during Holidailies, will find that they have arrived in medias res. If Markings is essentially a journal of suburban life, then the current pieces are an aberration of that. For the last two weeks I have been posting from an artist residency in Wyoming, and will be here until December 13. My holidays, and thus my Holidailies, are a bit different this year.

Jette started Holidailies as a way to give readers a gift of her prose. My readers are a gift to me. Thank you for being here, however you got here, and for however long you plan to stay. And thank you for reading, so much, so often.

Love it? Hate it? Just want to say Hi? Leave a comment, or e-mail me:
margaretdeangelis [at] gmail [dot] com (replace the brackets with @ and a period)